A couple days ago while helping a friend here in Anchorage get on
line with his Verizon cell phone, I learned some details about
BroadbandAccess Connect and calling plans.
I had read that if your voice calling plan is the new
"Nationwide" plan, you can get data access in most Extended
Network areas with a cell phone, just as you can with data device
(PC Card, ExpressCard, or USB). If you have the older "America’s
Choice" plan, you must be in a native Verizon service area to get
Internet access with a tethered cell phone.
After we switched my friend's voice plan from America’s Choice to
Nationwide, he was able to use BroadbandAccess Connect to connect
his cell phone to the ‘Net here in Alaska, which has no native
Verizon service.
What I learned yesterday was that under the America’s Choice
plan, data was treated the same as voice. That’s why we could get
data access for "minutes of use", providing the capability had
not been disabled on the individual cellular account.
Under the Nationwide plan, though, data is treated as data, so
any Internet access will incur a charge of $1.99/megabyte unless
you call and enable a data feature such as BroadbandAccess
Connect.
The risk is that with the Nationwide plan you can tether your
cell phone to your computer and get online without turning on the
BroadbandAccess Connect feature. You won’t know until you get
your monthly statement that you have rung up a huge bill. For
example, the Verizon coverage locator page alone is three
megabytes. That’s $6.00 for a single page!
With the old America’s Choice plan, you either got on for minutes
of use or you didn’t get on at all.
--
Dave
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